Sunday, June 28, 2015

REVIEW 338: MISS TANAKPUR HAAZIR HO

Just
reading this film’s credit rolls is enough to bring on an attack of the giggles.
When they’re at their best, and given a good script, the four leading men of Miss
Tanakpur Haazir Ho have killer comic timing. As luck would have it, the writing and
acting hit the bull’s eye all the way up to the interval.The result is unmitigated comedy in the
foreground without being insensitive to the tragedy in the background, of a
young woman forced into marriage with an old man who gives vent to his
frustration over his sexual impotence by physically abusing her.

Striking that balance is
an art, and writer-director Vinod Kapri has a steady hand on his brush in the
first hour.

The woman in question is Maya
(Hrishita Bhatt), wife of the ageing and corrupt pradhaanSualaal Gandass (Annu
Kapoor). Maya finds solace in the arms of a village youth called Arjun (Rahul
Bagga) whenever her husband is away from home. The wily Gandass and his sidekick
(Ravi Kishen) have a third cohort in their dubious games: the local holy man
(Sanjai Mishra).

So far so good. The reason why
the film works up to this point is that while it does evoke laughter in the
first half, it does not seek to do so at Maya or Arjun’s expense. The gags are derived
from mocking the villains or having a chuckle at the eccentricities of the locals.

Around interval time though, a
chain of circumstances leads to Arjun being falsely accused of raping a
buffalo, and that’s when it all goes downhill. From that moment on, as the
situation turns grim all around, Vinod seems unsure about what tone to go with.
He appears to want to stick to comedy, but does not have the finesse to handle
such a grave subject through that genre.

Worse, the film seems unsure
about whether bestiality is a grave subject at all. It even gets confused about
what the issue at hand is. I thought the combined themes were spousal abuse and
systemic corruption until a voiceover in the end announced that Miss Tanakpur was a film about the frivolous
cases that crowd Indian courts. A fabricated charge of bestiality was a poor
example to pick then, since there is little awareness about this crime in India
and a majority of the audience would probably not have a position on it. As a
consequence, the impression created – irrespective of the intent – is that the very
accusation of a man raping a buffalo is a joke.

Does Team Tanakpur believe that such sexual perversion does not exist or is bestiality
not to be deemed a perversion at all? Or do they think human beings should be
allowed to do as they please with animals?

It is clear that the film does
not want to make light of domestic violence or make wisecracks about rape in
general. Its position on bestiality though is less clear, and it does seem at
times to be amused by the phenomenon. Sadly, it endsup trivialising both. Having enjoyed the
first half of Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho
very much, it feels bad to say this, but methinks there is a special place in
hell reserved for folk who make light of sexual crimes.

I’m not turning this review into
a lesson on bestiality. Suffice it to say that having sex with animals is
outlawed in some parts of the world (India included) while others have debated the
matter. Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho could
have sparked off a discussion on the subject, but in its confusion about the
tone it should take and in the absence of a commitment to the cause it seems to
be espousing, it ends up being a lukewarm film.

Let’s be clear about this: it is both
possible and acceptable to use humour to throw light on the most sombre of
themes. Doing so, however, requires incredible skill of the kind Roberto
Benigni displayed when he set an entire comedy in a concentration camp in Italy
during World War II, in his lovely multiple-award-winning 1997 film Life Is Beautiful. More recently, (though
not on a par with LIB) Seth Rogen and
Evan Goldberg used laughter to take the mickey out of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un
in the highly controversial The Interview
last year.

Step 1 towards pulling off such a
blend is conviction. Step 2 is courage of conviction. Step 3 is great writing
abilities. Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho
falters at Step 1. What a lost opportunity it is.

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About Me

Anna MM Vetticad is an award-winning journalist, journalism teacher and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, an overview of the Hindi film industry presented through an account of a year in which she watched every single Bollywood film released in India’s National Capital Region. A journalist since 1994, she has worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Headlines Today. At HT she hosted her own interview show Star Trek which drew all India’s eminent entertainment personalities. While Anna has spent most of her career as a behind-the-scenes editorial person, she has also reported on most major Indian entertainment and lifestyle events and several international ones including Cannes and the Oscars, in addition to being the film critic for Headlines Today. She is currently reporting and writing for multiple publications on cinema and social issues with a focus on gender concerns. The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic is available on amazon.com, ebay.in, flipkart.com, ombooksinternational.com, ombooks.com, infibeam.com, homeshop18.com and dialabook.in among other websites, and in stores across India. Twitter: @annavetticad